The problems of cleaning delicate semiconductor wafer surfaces to near absolute cleanliness are so great that the usual cleaning methods and apparatus involving brushes or combinations of brushes and pressure rinse cleaning produce intolerable particle contamination and breakage of the wafer. In addition, the particle contamination associated with exposure of the wafer to an ambient environment has heretofore been deemed to require that the wafer remain within a single particle free enclosure during at least the washing, rinsing and drying stages. Moreover, the usual type of assembly-line multistage cleaning methods and apparatus used for more rugged apparatus, such as computer hard disks, which do not require such near-absolute cleanliness do not provide the requisite safeguards against particle contamination or breakage; and therefore have not heretofore been deemed practical for use with semiconductor wafers.